Nassau DA to let ‘Moses’ go

Rebecca Klar

A man dressed as Moses was arrested in June after attempting to deliver a plague of red-dyed water to the Nassau County Legislature.

Later this week, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas will let Moses go.

Singas is prepared to drop charges of false bomb threats issued to “Moses” in June. Civil rights attorney Ronald Kuby said the man never posed a threat and was part of a prison rights protest.

Stephen Figurasmith, 32, of Valley Stream, represented by Kuby, and Suzanne Myron, 51, of Woodbury, were arrested on June 14 after 125 bottles of an unknown liquid were placed at the entrance of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola.

According to a news release sent out by Kuby on Wednesday, the bottles were water with red food dye to symbolize the first of the Ten Plagues. Figuarasmith was dressed as Moses, and Myron dressed as Aaron, according to the release.

Kuby’s associate said the firm only represented Moses, not Aaron.

The bottles were “clearly labeled nontoxic” and accompanied by a relevant passage of Exodus explaining the meaning, Kuby said in an interview.

“There was absolutely no basis to believe there was any threat whatsover, and every basis to believe there was not a threat,” Kuby said.

An unnamed county official, possibly a judge or legislator, did the “legal equivalent of pulling the emergency brake on the Long Island Rail Road and everything sort of erupted,” Kuby said.

Figurasmith faced  first-degree class D violent felony charges and faced up to seven years in prison, according to the release.

Brendan Brosh, a spokesman for the district attorney, said “the defendant will be offered an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal at his next court appearance.”

Figurasmith’s and Myron’s actions were part of a protest by a group known as Prison Abolitionists of Nassau Inciting Change, timed to coincide with the holiday Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of black Americans from slavery, according to the release.

The protest was aimed to depict the Ten Plagues, which according to the Hebrew Bible led Egypt’s Pharaoh to release the Jewish people from slavery, according to the release.

“We invoked the classic story of Moses and Pharaoh in order to call for an end to slave labor inside of the Nassau County jail,” Figuramsith said in the release.

Kuby said there was no basis for this case, because Figurasmith didn’t violate any laws.

Kuby commended Singas for “knowing the difference between crime and theater.”

Reach reporter Rebecca Klar by email at rklar@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 204, or follow her on Twitter @rebeccaklar_.

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